Abstract Details

Name: Chanda J. Jog
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Conference ID: ASI2017_1095
Title : Off-centred dark matter halo leading to strong central disc lopsidedness
Authors and Co-Authors : Chaitanya Prasad, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Abstract Type : Oral
Abstract Category : Extragalactic astronomy
Abstract : There is increasing evidence now from simulations and observations that the centre of dark matter halo in a Milky Way type galaxy could be off-centred by a few 100 pc w.r.t. the galactic disc. We study the effect of such an offset halo on the orbits and kinematics in the central few kpc of the disc. The equations of motion in the disc plane can be written in terms of the disc and halo potentials when these two are concentric and a perturbation term due to the offset halo. This perturbation potential shows an m=1 azimuthal variation, or is lopsided, and its magnitude increases at small radii. On solving these equations, we find that the perturbed orbit shows a large deviation ~ 40 % in radius at R=1.5 kpc, and also strong kinematical lopsidedness. Thus even a small halo offset of 350 pc can induce surprisingly strong spatial and kinematical lopsidedness in the central region within ~ 3 kpc radius. Further, the disc would remain lopsided for several Gyr, as long as the halo offset lasts. This would have important dynamical consequences, for example it can help fuel the central AGN.